Earthweek: a diary of the planet
Cooked mussels
Unseasonable heat along the Northern California coast during June thoroughly cooked mussels exposed above the water at low tide, leaving their shells gaping wide in 100-degree heat.
It was the largest dieoff of mussels in at least 15 years at Bodega Head, where some say it was worse than during the 2004 heat wave. The hottest weather north of San Francisco typically occurs later in the summer, when the low tides exposing the mussels happen in the cooler mornings or at night.
Hawaiian alert
Rumblings within the world’s largest active volcano prompted officials to raise the alert level of Mauna Loa, located on the Big Island of Hawaii. The U.S. Geological Survey said that though the new level doesn’t mean an eruption is imminent, volcanic tremors and ground swelling indicate magma is entering the volcano’s plumbing. Mauna Loa has a history of sending huge lava flows down its flanks to the coast within a brief period of time. Antarctic melt
A new study shows Antarctica’s vast ring of floating sea ice has undergone a sudden shift from expansion to a dramatic decline in just three years, leaving scientists puzzled as to the cause. Satellite observations show the “precipitous” disappearance of the sea ice since 2014 was greater than all of the ice lost in the Arctic during the past 34 years. However, because the ice surrounding Antarctica was floating on the surface of the ocean, the melt isn’t contributing to the ongoing global sea level rise.
“The Arctic has become a poster child for global warming,” said Claire Parkinson of NASA’S Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland, but scientists say the recent sea ice disappearance in Antarctica has been greater.
Roach resistance
Cockroaches are developing a superimmunity to multiple classes of insecticides, leaving Earth’s human population with little chemical defense against the hoards of creepy crawlies.
A Purdue University study found that the German cockroach, Blattella germanica, can develop an immunity to new poisons in as little as one generation. Study co-author Michael Scharf concludes that the increasing immunity means it will become necessary to diversify roach eradication efforts, using such methods as traps, vacuums and increased sanitation. Pacific hurricane
Hurricane Barbara, the second named storm of the eastern Pacific hurricane season, weakened to a tropical storm by the end of the week, after quickly reaching Category 4 force as it moved westward between Baja California and Hawaii.
Earthquakes
California was struck by its largest earthquake in more than two decades Thursday, as a 6.4-magnitude earthquake struck a remote region in the southeastern part of the state. The area sustained more than 200 aftershocks Friday.
Also this week, a moderate tremor jolted residents in the southern Philippine provinces of Cebu and Bohol without inflicting significant damage. Earth movements also were felt in the occupied West Bank and along the Nevada-utah border.
Carbon retirement
New research indicates that the only way to limit global warming to 1.5 to 2.0 degrees Celsius, as agreed to internationally, is through the early retirement of the world’s power plants and industrial equipment that burn fossil fuels. That is, unless the facilities can be retrofitted before 2050 to capture and store their carbon emissions, or those emissions are offset by pulling an equal amount of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.
A new report published in the journal Nature points out that reaching the goal will be difficult because the number of fossil fuel-burning power plants and vehicles around the world has increased dramatically during the past decade. This has mainly been due to rapid economic expansion in China and India.
“We need to reach net-zero carbon dioxide emissions by mid-century to achieve stabilization of global temperatures as called for in international agreements such as the Paris Accords,” said the study’s lead author, Dan Tong, of the University of California, Irvine.
©2019 Earth Environment Service